01.23.2016 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine

Topics from Media and Social Networks

US Ambassador Pyatt insists on the adoption of the "decentralization" by the Parliament.

Poroshenko said that Ukraine would recover the control of Donbas in 2016.

MP Parasyuk threw a glass at the public prosecutor at the trial against the Right Sector members.

Key Events in Ukraine

President Poroshenko is confident that the Parliament already has 300 votes to adopt the amendments to the Constitution to be voted at the next Parliament session in the first six months of the year, immediately after Ukraine gains control over its state border with Russia. He said that decentralization and constitutional amendments exclude the adoption of laws on the special status of any territory, and the project does not have a "black cat of federalization." Poroshenko claims that derailing the Minsk Agreements and blocking the constitutional process would lead to a full-scale conflict with Russia. According to him, Ukraine will regain control of Donbas in 2016.

In honor of the Ukrainian Unity Day, Poroshenko presented state decorations to Ukrainians, who have made contributions to the development and unity of the country.

A conference of Mayors - members of the Association of Ukrainian cities was held in Kyiv, where Kyiv Mayor Klitschko was elected its Head. Lviv Mayor Sadovy said that for Klitschko to be elected, the statute was changed illegitimately, while the Lviv Mayor's candidacy was not even voted. Klitschko believes that he has nothing to apologize for, since he received the majority of votes according to the procedure defined by the Association.

Parliament Speaker Groisman said that he would sign the law on elections in Kryvyi Rih after the MPs cancel the results of the previous elections. He also said that the amendment to the budget providing for e-declaration of income will be considered by the Parliament next week.

Finance Minister Yaresko believes that the issue of "Yanukovych’s debt" can be settled through negotiations with Russia without recourse to court proceedings. А meeting of Ukrainian and Russian officials to discuss the debt restructuring could be held in the near future.

Ukroboronprom Press Service reported that at the meeting of the company’s management with Assistant Secretary of State Rose it was decided to implement joint projects for the production of modern weapons and cooperation in the security area.

Prosecutor General's Office said that the case of the transfer of weapons to “titushky” fighters during the events on Maidan by the former management and employees of the Interior Ministry was submitted to court.

The trial on the fight at Dragobrat resort upheld the detention of two Right Sector members, while two others were released on bail under MPs’ guarantees.

Ukraine at War

During the fighting in Donbas one soldier was wounded and another killed in a trip wire explosion. The militants continue firing along the entire front line in the Donetsk region, from Svetlodarsk to Shyrokyne, with most intense fighting at the Donetsk Airport. Intelligence provided to the OSCE mission the data on the concentration of tanks and self-propelled guns in Donetsk and near Yenakiyeve.

According to the Border Guard Service, the FSB has established a channel of smuggling to Europe the cigarettes produced in Donetsk. The owner of the tobacco factory, crime boss Lyashko, oligarch Akhmetov's closest partner, was killed in December in Crimea.

Ukraine and the World

Ambassador to Ukraine Pyatt said at the conference of the Association of Ukrainian Cities that the Parliament must accept the amendments to the Constitution related to the "decentralization" of power. According to him, Ukraine has already achieved a lot in terms of improving the legislation, and USAID will open a new partnership program to support the decentralization of local government.

Vice President Biden said the United States and Turkey were ready to resort to the military solution to the conflict in Syria should the process of political settlement fail.

The Trends

According to former Deputy Head of the Central Election Commission and Ukraine representative at the Venice Commission in 2009-2014 Maryna Stavniychuk, manipulations with the constitutional process continue. The Constitutional Court approves in an emergency mode any proposal of the President, and takes years to consider submissions and request that are disadvantageous to the President and his team. A characteristic feature of the current government is the reluctance to take responsibility for its mistakes and the desire to shift it to others at the cost of humiliating the Constitution. According to Stavniychuk, the judicial reform is being carried out by passing the laws that are beneficial from the point of view of the political situation, rather than introducing balanced amendments to the Constitution. The changes to the Constitution proposed by means of transitional provisions are aimed at strengthening the President's direct influence over the judiciary. She is convinced that the Parliament should reject populism and implement the reform within fixed terms, gradually creating the atmosphere of public trust to the judicial system.

According to some analysts, the announcement made by President Poroshenko on the availability of 300 votes in Parliament to adopt the amendments to the Constitution indicates the pressure on the Parliament to adopt them, and his statement that the proposed changes do not provide for the special status of territories is a lie and manipulative deception, since the transitional provisions refer to the law on the special status of certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.